


Conjunction of Suns

by Serenade



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men: Apocalypse
Genre: Captivity, Dubious Consent, M/M, Seduction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-09 22:42:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7820074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenade/pseuds/Serenade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Apocalypse seduces Charles to his side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conjunction of Suns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [labocat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/labocat/gifts).



Charles watched the moon rise over Cairo at dusk, long shadows spreading over the city, while lights flickered to life one by one through the cloud of smoke and dust. Apocalypse had chosen a good location for his stronghold. It was an unmatched vantage point, and the Horsemen stood sentinel at its four corners. Charles wondered if it was worth trying to talk to them again. So far, they had been cold to his questions and impervious to his telepathy.

The air stirred behind him, just as he sensed a presence: Apocalypse, materialising out of nowhere. Inhumanly tall, silhouette blotting out the city lights, grey as a corpse, sustained by alien technology and stolen powers. His smile was like a jagged cut. Charles sensed a brief flicker of pleasure--like a man admiring a prized possession--before Charles raised up shields around his mind.

Reaching out with his telepathy was instinctive to him, like a sighted man sweeping his gaze across a room. But he could not risk it now. He dared not open his mind to Apocalypse again. That first fleeting connection in Cerebro had been enough to overwhelm him. Raw power like a sun that pulled the planets into alignment and blacked out all the stars in the sky.

Apocalypse loomed over him like a shadow, laying a large hand on his arm. "You're shivering," he said, in his oddly resonant voice. "The desert nights are cool. I will have a chamber prepared for you."

"I don't require hospitality from you."

"I didn't bring you here to let you die from exposure. What a waste that would be, when you could build a new world with me."

Charles tried to pull away, but he was caught fast. "All I see is a man in love with power. Consumed by ambition. Greedy for immortality. You can paint whatever justifications you want, but you cannot conceal the truth from me."

Apocalypse smiled. "Do you know why you see me this way? It's not your telepathy. It's your own reflected ambition."

"I'm a teacher, not a dictator."

"You shape minds. You command warriors. They are young, but they are powerful. And they are loyal to you. They would die for you."

"I would never ask them--"

"You are not that naive. They are coming for you, even now. And they will die unless you tell them to lay down their weapons. Tell them to join us."

"There is no us."

Apocalypse stroked his arm. "Oh, there will be."

***

Apocalypse came to visit Charles every night, bringing him honeyed wine, sitting by his bed. Like he was courting him. Charles could have laughed at the sheer incongruity, if he didn't know that Apocalypse and his Horsemen were raining death and destruction across the globe.

He had to try to stop it. He had to persuade Apocalypse, however he could. "War will not bring you what you desire. It breeds only misery."

Apocalypse was unperturbed. "I plan to put a stop to war. I know it is your dream too. A world united in eternal peace."

"Not when you would kill millions to achieve it."

"Would that be your price? If I spared their lives? I would do it for you, if you do something for me. Compel them to obey me. Put an end to their rebellion."

"You mean, enslave them."

"You do it whenever those you love are threatened. I've seen inside you. We shared a connection. Why do you pretend to be soft and gentle? No more disguises." One brush of his thumb against the pale lilac sweater Charles wore, and it unravelled into atoms, yarn dissolving into strands of light, until golden motes of dust illuminated his bare chest. His arms were corded with muscle from wheeling the chair he had mastered. There was a scar along his spine where the bullet had gone in. Apocalypse brushed his fingers over it. "I, too, know the sting of betrayal."

Charles summoned up all his discipline and dignity, never mind he was half undressed, with his enemy pressed close and with no apparent inclination to ease back. In a steady voice, he said, "Whatever you do to me, I will never yield to you."

"I have no intention of harming you." Apocalypse laid his palm flat. Charles inhaled a sharp gasp at the unexpected heat, like a furnace, like a brand. He had expected the other man to be cold and mechanical. But his hand was flesh, alive and warm, and his eyes, too, when they looked into his own, were alive and warm.

For a moment, Charles saw not the god king he proclaimed himself, but a mortal man: one of a long succession of mortal men who had found himself with powers that he struggled to understand. Powers that the world refused to accept. He felt a momentary kinship with those mutants who had lived through distant times but endured the same trials.

His heartbeat hammered. "What do you want?"

"You." No hesitation. "I have waited centuries for you."

The words lodged a hook in his heart. Every telepath's dream: to be known. Every mutant's dream: to belong.

"What I plan for you--for us--is something special. The highest honour, bestowed upon a chosen few. The best of every generation: the strongest, the bravest, the finest. You will become a vessel for my spirit. A sacred union of mind, body, and soul."

Charles swallowed, throat dry. "I will never be yours."

"You have no idea how long and lonely eternity is. Not yet. You will receive me. Not reluctantly, like a hostage. But willingly, like a lover."

***

The Horsemen came at dawn to prepare Charles for the ritual. They plunged him into a steaming bath of rosewater, scrubbing his skin until it flushed pink. They anointed him with scented oils, and dressed him in a linen robe. He endured it with dignified silence.

In the ceremonial chamber, they laid him upon a stone slab, binding him at wrist and ankle, to await their master. Then they withdrew, leaving Charles alone. The sun moved across the high window slits, not quite illuminating where he lay. Not yet.

Apocalypse entered at noon. He gazed down with pleasure at Charles, examining his body with loving care, caressing him from shoulder to thigh. Charles jerked in his bonds. His flesh woke at the touch, an infusion of feeling even in his deadened legs.

Apocalypse noticed his bewilderment. "My last chosen one had the power of cellular regeneration. Don't you understand? When we are one, all my powers will be yours too. Healing, teleportation, telekinesis--so many gifts I want to share with you."

The possibilities were dazzling. To walk, to run, to fly--

Charles turned his face away from temptation.

But Apocalypse loosed his bonds and lifted him up, great hands circling his waist. Effortless, as though he weighed less than a feather. The linen robe slid away. His back hit the stone wall. His feet hung in the air. His thighs trembled with tension. Apocalypse bent to kiss his throat, lips dry and warm. "You should see yourself. How perfect you are."

Charles had assumed the armour--ancient, alien--was an integral part of Apocalypse now, like a symbiotic machine, preserving and prolonging his life. That he was disfigured or distorted by its mechanisms and machineries. But no, the armour unfolded from his body, like origami in reverse, leaving him whole and unmarked. It struck the stone floor like a bell.

He stood taller than any ordinary human, like the giants of myth. He could have been a classical statue, with the proportions of a titan. Legs like pillars, trunk like a tower, shoulders like an arch that could bear the weight of the world. He was engorged with desire. He pressed up against Charles, their bodies flush, their heartbeats matched. They moved together, against each other. Charles looked away, but Apocalypse tilted his chin back to face him. "Join yourself to me."

Apocalypse would never be more vulnerable than this. If there was a chance that Charles could stop this war, in the blink of an eye--

Apocalypse said, "Open for me."

Charles opened his mind. And plunged into Apocalypse.

His mind was dense with memories, of lost kingdoms and forgotten empires, of worshippers who chanted his name when he lifted them out of darkness. He heard the Horsemen, defiant against the world that had disillusioned them. He heard his children, flying through stormy skies to find him. He heard countless voices, in all the languages of the world, lost and afraid and crying out for someone to help them. It was like being in Cerebro at full power, if Cerebro had the power to touch the past and reach the future. Did Apocalypse possess the gift of precognition?

He saw a young man on the banks of the Nile, long ago, watching a great pyramid rise. 

"Closer," Apocalypse said, a catch in his breath. He lifted Charles, parting his cleft, pressing him open. And then he let go, slowly, so that gravity drove Charles down upon his cock, impaled and breathless. He was inside Apocalypse's mind, and Apocalypse was inside his body. A molten core of heat drove deep into him, with rhythmic thrusts.

"So good," Apocalypse murmured, tenderly caressing Charles. "You belong here. With me."

Charles looked through the other man's eyes, seeing himself flushed and naked, biting his lower lip, sweat on his face, being fucked slowly against the wall. He clutched Apocalypse's shoulders. His gasps echoed through the chamber. His blue eyes were wide, and Apocalypse was reflected in them. 

He was the most powerful telepath in the world. He could save them all. If he could only harness the powers that Apocalypse possessed. If he could only change his path, like changing the orbit of the sun--

Charles joined their mouths, and everything became heat and light. Like flying into the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> Now illustrated with the gorgeous artwork [Conjunction of Suns](http://kingkaneda.tumblr.com/post/152465760821/x-men-conjunction-of-suns-onslaughtcharlesen) by King.


End file.
